21. Debrief
Barge End On the sleepy docks of Barge End, Nix bade farewell to the group. He presented Wilfred with instructions on how to construct an amulet that would protect him from scrying magics, telling the gnome to give it to Clwyd, place himself further in the artificer's debt, and then they would all see if Wilfred was as good as his word. Nix told the group that if they wanted to get in touch with him, they need only ask his ward in the future, and with that, he and Dimitri flew off towards the Chelonii Atoll. In Barge End proper, the party met Ezekiel Moriager - or Zeke if you fancied it - an elderly, dark-skinned Reefbeard. He had been praying at a small shrine to the ten aspects of the sea, part of a belief system that was referred to mostly as the Old Ways, involving reverence for and deification of the sea. The Old Ways had been the origin of a number of the widespread beliefs and superstitions of the world. Zeke offered to show the group around since Barge End didn't tend to get too many visitors at that time of year and there wasn't much to see in any case. He took them to his home, based in one of the older, central boats in the daisy chain, a vessel called Of Course I Still Love You. Inside was a homely room with a lot of rugs and textures. His bookshelf sported an impressive collection of plays, including a beautiful set of the complete works of the Great Twelve, legendary playwrights from centuries past. Zeke made kelp tea and some food for the party, and then told the group the real reason he'd wanted them to come speak with him for a while. The old Reefbeard knew of the red-winged creature they'd arrived in Barge End with. Nix had been there once before, and though Zeke didn't wish to speak on the happenings of that visit, regarding it as his own business, he did have a few things he wanted to pass on to whoever it was relevant to, if they were so inclined to listen. Speaking to the group as a whole, he said that no matter how Nix makes them feel, no matter what he promises or threatens, he can never force them to choose. Their choices would forever be their own sanctum. After this, he and the party swapped a few tales. Zeke had been one of the founders of Barge End, and he told the group some of the place's history. Cormorant shared that he had spent nine years hunting a woman with flame-red skin and horns on her head, a tiefling, known as Skyburn. When asked, he also told an anecdote about losing his eye to a sword and then gaining the magical replacement: he once captained a ship by the name of the Drunken Tiger. His crew fished a woman out the waves one day, floating among flotsam and jetsam. She happened to have a surplus of eyes on her, Cormorant happened to have a shortage of them, and so he got his magic opal eye. He later woke up in the night to a burning ship and the woman gone. Wilfred asked if this was the same woman he was chasing now, and Cormorant replied that wasn't the case. Pyt shared some of his recent revelations. He wasn't sure on the details, but he told the group that it appeared he had forgotten a great deal of his past and he was, in fact, quite old. He hoped that the others would treat him with a bit more respect now that he might be the oldest in the group. Clark started feeling some withdrawals, having tried annium again after a long time. He didn't share this with the group, and many were a little too preoccupied with another development that had occurred around him to notice. Flekk had begun to act more like a regular owl, shifting his wings, looking about a bit, and just generally looking less creepy than the frozen, statuesque figure he usually cast while clinging to Clark's shoulder. Ever amenable, Zeke went to speak with an old associate on behalf of the party after inquiry from Wilfred. This left the group alone in his house, giving them the change to message Nemmonis, who said she couldn't leave Tortuga because Nogg had begun piling up bodies and was going after her allies in the Pieces, and Duster, who told the party to head to Crab Claw as soon as possible for a debrief. The group briefly reconsidered sailing back to Tortuga and taking the fight to Nogg, but a final sending spell to Driscoll reiterated that he thought they'd tried their best, but that it might be best for them to meet up with him now. Zeke returned in a huff, but presented Wilfred with two different recipes for salves that would reverse Vic's petrification, one that made use of the stomach of a basilisk and one that used the egg of a grand cockatrice. Ever the gracious host, Zeke fed the group again at dinner, let them stay the night, and then sorted them out with breakfast and enough supplies to last them to Bisquay. Cormorant tried to pay him, but the old Reefbeard stressed than hospitality towards guests and strangers was a virtue of the Old Ways and he merely hoped the group would pay it forward when they got the chance. He saw them off with a nod, wishing them luck on the water, and then prayed at his shrine again. It was around this time that the party whipped out their folding boat. Cormorant recognised it as a rare treasure indeed, and shocked the group when he told them it was worth something in the region of 5,000 to 10,000 gold pieces. Crab Claw The party sailed for a day, arriving in Bisquay at dusk. The next day they set off for Crab Claw Cove. The first day was largely uneventful, business as usual in the waters immediately surrounding the Wine Island. On the night of the second day, however, Clark spotted a green light in the distance. He roused the group up on deck as the thing drew closer. Many of the party readied their arms and spells, and then unleashed hell when the thing was revealed to be a burning human skull flying freely, chattering its jaw a little as is neared them - a flameskull. Clwyd showed some of her new abilities, hurling motes of energy from her scarred hand that flew an incredible distance before smacking into the approaching abomination. Cormorant took a shot, blasting a little chip of bone off the skull, and Clark tolled the dead. The skull screamed in response. 'You bastards! I only wanted to ask a question!' then unleashed a fireball on the Drunken Dragon, burning sails and rope, and many of the party. In his weakened state, Pyt immediately dropped to the deck, badly wounded. Cormorant called for a truce, saying it had been an honest misunderstanding. The skull was amenable, quickly halting his assault. He introducing himself as Graham and asked if any of them had seen a headless rider on a burning horse anywhere in the area, this being his body. The party were sad to say they couldn't help the floating skull. Graham asked them to mention him if they do come across the headless rider before he flew off towards the horizon in search of himself. The party arrived at Crab Claw Cove early the next day. The Matricide was anchored and waiting for them. The group quickly when into a meeting with Driscoll, Duster, and Laylin, with Clwyd magically disguised as a halfling and Cormorant introducing himself, saying he was loyal to his crew - which was currently the party - and so to Driscoll as well, whose flag they flew. The trio before the party all seemed subdued and quiet, with Duster visibly upset. The party freely told Driscoll and his advisers all that had happened since they'd parted ways. Driscoll offered his opinion and insight on a number of the happenings: Hideno Island could potentially serve as a good place for respite or to move some non-combatants. It had been dangerous for the party to explore wild islands as they had, but there was no sense in wasting what they'd uncovered. It was unclear to Driscoll if they'd have the time to send people to Rumidian territory to try and get the recipe for Clay as things stood. They'd need to revisit the issue later. Driscoll felt it was likely that the Proprietor had been playing the group from the moment they arrived on Tortuga. He set up meetings specifically so they'd feel on edge and turn to him for help. It didn't seem like an accident that after the meetings he'd arranged, the party went to him, made a deal, and then fought in the Garden of Sand, making the Proprietor a lot of money in a very short time. He felt that Alejandro had likely been bluffing the group. The Rumidian situation on Tortuga was tentative at best and it would have been very risky for them to start killing with abandon or ignoring the Tortuga Rules. Alejandro was probably just seeing how much information he could get out of the group before they figured him out. Driscoll was distressed to hear about the fate of Vic, but didn't like the condescension of some of the party now choosing to regard her as a child. In Driscoll's eyes, they'd fought with her, sought her council and insight, taken her to meetings, and sailed with her. She was a pirate like any of them. And they did everyone a disservice to talk down to her now that she needed their help. Driscoll also doubted the party's assertions that Shandy and the Rumidians were working together. Their conflict, he said, stretched back a long time indeed. Since the party's only evidence was that Nogg had printed his leaflets of challenge on a Rumidian press, Driscoll thought it far more likely the Dread Drake had just seized one of the devices while transiting to Tortuga. On hearing about Clwyd, Nix, and the party escaping via the Hells, Driscoll wondered if this Nix could be a good and trustworthy ally. He didn't think himself above partnering with such an entity with the way things were going, but Clwyd mentioned that Nix would probably be unlikely to offer his help unless he were to gain things for himself. Finally, the party touched on their hunt for the traitor in Driscoll's ranks. Pyt successfully wove a deception, making it appear that the party had done far more work to that end than they'd managed to in truth. Before Driscoll said his piece about the topic, Duster swore at him and stormed out the room, visibly upset. Laylin followed to try and talk to the doppelganger, leaving Driscoll alone with the party. He told them they'd been the last part of his gambit. He said that his forces couldn't hope to keep fighting with the fear of the Rumidians worming their way through all their info and everything they were doing. More than anything, they couldn't risk the non-combatants on Crab Claw and Yeddow, islands in his territory with Log Pins. Driscoll had truly hoped the party would have been successful in rooting out the traitor, but it hadn't been so. He knew Shandy, having been slighted as severely as she was, would send one of her best to Tortuga to go after his crews there. He'd expected Zephyr but she'd gone with Nogg. It was inconsequential. Driscoll would make use of them anyway. They weren't going to backup the crews on Tortuga. For the sake of ensuring the end of the traitor, two ships were being condemned to die by Nogg's hand, hopefully damaging Shandy's commander some in the process. The risk now was that Nogg might get hold of any of the Log Pins that Badger or Nemmonis possessed. The Indomitable and ''the Wicked Sister'' was moving to Yeddow, and the Matricide would stay on Crab Claw. Quinn had insisted on going to Bisquay, the most easily accessed of Driscoll's islands and the dagger pointed at the heart of his territory, and she was to head there once she was done on Longreach. Driscoll asked the party if they'd back her up, keeping their eyes on the horizon for any sign of Shandy's flag, and falling back immediately if they spotted one. The group agreed to his request. Before they left the island, they looked for Duster and Laylin and found them at one of the claw tips, among hundreds of the stone effigies made whenever one of their own died. Duster was sat among them, furiously working on a new one in his hands. Laylin sat apart from him and approached the group when they arrived. She spoke softly so as not to disturb her friend, and her voice cracked with emotion. She told the group that she trusted them, that maybe they just hadn't been suited to the job on Tortuga but that she still thought they were a capable bunch. More than anything, she wanted to stress that they needed the party now. They'd never done anything like what they were doing here, leaving two ships to die. And Laylin was sure they'd never do it again. But it meant they were down to just four now, plus the party. The crew of the Drunken Dragon were now a crucial factor in Driscoll's war - or, perhaps more accurately, they had been from the moment he put them together, they just hadn't quite known it at the time. The party left the pair among the statuettes to the fallen and sailed back to Bisquay, arriving on the evening of Midwinter's day - a calendar event not well celebrated in the Merchant Strait, where commerce stopped completely for the two weeks either side of Midwinter due to the passage near the Frostflows freezing over. The nighttime streets of Bisquay were quieter than the party remembered and they heard whisperings that there might be some problems with the little folk; some of the residents left out extra cups of wine as a result. Sure enough, the party heard some clomping in the distance and soon saw a tiny set of horses attached to a cart round a corner, galloping as fast as they could. A duo of metal-shoe wearing gnome-sized fey in hot pursuit, two redcaps. The three brownies in their cart raced past the party, looking worriedly at them as they did. Suddenly, one of the pursuing redcaps screamed 'the maker!', found a burst of speed, and drop-kicked Clark right in the chest. Category:Part Two